Revisiting June 6, 1944

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2019)

There are just some dates in history that will live forever. July 20, 1969 was one of those days, when Man set foot on the Moon for the first time. November 22, 1963 was another such day, when America lost its innocence as the result of John F. Kennedy being murdered.
Another important date in world history would be June 6, 1944. On that day, with the world still writhing in pain from a horrible war, an invasion force of three million soldiers from the U.S., England, and Canada stormed the beaches of France's Normandy coastline to start the freeing of Europe from Adolf Hitler's Nazi tyranny, which by that time had killed well over fifteen million people overall (six million of those for the specific reason of them being Jewish). The operation was known as "Operation Overlord"; and the date itself became known as D-Day. But for those millions who stormed those beaches, and the tens of thousands of them who were to lose their lives in this great cause, it was THE LONGEST DAY. And eighteen years later, in 1962, the combined talents of 20th Century Fox mogul Darryl Zanuck, writer Cornelius Ryan, and tons of others memorialized that day on the big screen in one of the greatest Hollywood epics ever made.
This nearly three-hour masterpiece doesn't just focus on the complexities of the D-Day landing itself; it also gives us a look at the men who had to fight it, and the Nazi commandants who were in charge of repelling the invasion (and who evidently slept at the switch, not thinking that such an invasion could ever be mounted). THE LONGEST DAY was the most expensive black-and-white movie ever made in Hollywood up to that point, at nearly $10 million; and in order to make this happen, Zanuck got practically every living actor in Hollywood, and some more from England, to participate. This meant that many of the actors were only on the screen for a short time; and it also meant that some were in roles that they arguably were a bit too old to be playing. Still, the presence of these actors and their star wattage made THE LONGEST DAY, among other things, The Biggest Deal. When you have a cast that includes John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Rod Steiger, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Robert Wagner, and Eddie Albert just for starters, then it definitely is a big deal.
Of course, it is tempting for people to compare this film's depiction of the D-Day landing to the way it was depicted in, but was the opening salvo to, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. But such comparisons, while inevitable, are not necessarily fair or accurate. What was shown in unflinchingly graphic detail by Steven Spielberg in his 1998 masterpiece could not be shown in pre-MPAA ratings Hollywood. One can't hold this against either Zanuck, or the three directors (Andrew Marton; Ken Annakin; Bernhard Wicki) who helped bring THE LONGEST DAY to the screen. In the end, THE LONGEST DAY still gives one a feel of the scope of the way the invasion took place, and some of the foibles that occurred on and prior to June 6, 1944. The fact is that D-Day, while an enormous success for the Allies in the end, wasn't perfect at its inception, which was certainly shown to be so in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and acknowledged here.
Still, the invasion was given its full measure of due here in THE LONGEST DAY; and that's why it remains indisputably one of the greatest films about the absolute last "Good War" in history.